Saturday, February 20, 2010

The future of games

At the D.I.C.E. Summit, which closed yesterday, Jesse Schell held an interesting talk on the future of gaming. Schell is CEO of Schell Games and tutor at the faculty of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. He also used to work for Disney and still acts as a consultant for them.

His presentation entitled ´Design Outside The Box´ examines recent phenomena in gaming and their impact, as well as the future, where mundane tasks may come in the form of videogames.

I would like to introduce his presentation as follows. Consider a single game that is currently played by more than 70 million active users. Sounds impossible? No, there really is a game like that. But they must have collected this user base over many, many years, right? No, they only started out in June, so that is barely more than half a year.

That game in question, arguably the most successful game in the world at this point, is FarmVille on Facebook. Developer Zynga Game Network has attracted some big talent from traditional game companies. Its Vice President of Game Development should sound familiar: Mike Verdu recently left Electronic Arts, where he was General Manager at EALA and responsible for the ´Command & Conquer´ series.

What's more, Richard Garriott, better known as Lord British (´Ultima´, ´Tabula Rasa´), has just announced he is moving into social gaming and will be using Facebook as a platform with his new company Portalarium.

I myself have argued many times on this blog that the epicentre of gaming has already shifted with Wii. A core player is no longer one fond of gory horror and action shooters, but of ´Wii Fit´ and ´Brain Training´. Those games now constitute the core of gaming - which is a simple question of numbers. And now, Facebook is fast becoming the core of gaming. How will that change gaming? Where will gaming head in the future? Let Jesse Schell tell you.

73 comments:

Anonymous
said...

well, that's a very very sad future imo..

:-/

games are about skills, about mastery, solving tricky puzzles, overcoming jump and run sections, fighting big bosses with the right tactics, interacting with your environment in order to progress! shooting stuff! testing your reflexes! Using your brain! managing stuff! character development!etc etc etc

The more complex the better!;)

Zelda.

oh and btw! You should't compare Shenmue with Heavy Rain since Shenmue doesn't rely on qtes as heavily as HR ! It has rpg elements and fighting etc.! Shenmue is more than just an interactive movie with qtes.

Fair points on-topic. Regarding your last assertion, I have to repeat myself:

I am afraid some of you people don't follow my words too closely. As far as the ´Shenmue´ / ´Heavy Rain´ comparison is concerned, that is a very valid comparison in my book. Both games featured QTEs to engage the player in longer cutscenes. The extent may be greater in ´Heavy Rain´, but that is irrelevant, since I was concerned with the use QTEs per se.

There is also a second reason why those two games must be compared and this is the fact that both try to engage the player emotionally and to contribute to the overall realism of the setting by forcing the player to do mundane tasks. In ´Shenmue´, you needed to drive a forklift truck for some length to earn money. In ´Heavy Rain´, you need to shower, cook food and mind kids and infants.

Both games used those elements consistently and the exact extent of them is pretty much irrelevant here, since the question was regarding their use per se.

I don't know why some people have a problem with the Heavy Rain / Shenmue comparison. The games are extremely similar. Sure you can make lists and breakdown each game to show how they're different but the fact of the matter is that the games are similar. Some people act as if Heavy Rain has done a personal disservice to them. It's a game that is experimenting with gameplay mechanics that differ from the norm. There's no need for all this hate.

I find it funny how some people are so quick to call Heavy Rain nothing more than a movie and to just go and watch it on youtube. These are most likely the same people that have wii fit or wii music in their house.

Point being & like I said earlier, there's nothing wrong with trying something new.

Falfelkid,

I have a question. My import of Fatal Frame 4 came in last week. I was wondering if you've been able to play it with the english patch and if so, what are your thoughts on the game? Me personally, I think nintendo screwed up big time by not bringing this game over. Yes it wouldn't have sold in the millions but it's still a really solid game that most "core" wii users would have bought.

Making games for ‘customers’ as opposed to yourselves is getting some people to think that customers have a say in design decisions or level design and all. This actually is not the case. And it greatly offends the developers when this is done.

The relationship between the gamer and developer is the relationship between the diner and the cook. The diner consumes the food the chef makes. The purpose is for the diner to have a pleasant eating experience. If the food tastes funny or tastes badly, what the chef says doesn’t matter. It is the consumer’s taste buds that matter, not the chef’s. I’ve noticed in life that a chef’s taste in food is very different from the average consumer. Their taste is far more elaborate. The diner may not desire all the ’special spices’ and ’secret sauce’.

Not everyone likes the same type of food. Some people love fish. Others hate fish. Some people love Mexican food. Others hate Mexican food. As with gaming, there is a taste with some people liking RPG games, other people liking FPS games. Neither is *wrong*. They are just different tastes. But even despite tastes, even if you hate fish, you can tell when a fish meal was prepared well or not. If you hate Mexican food, you can tell when the dish was properly made or not. Taste doesn’t equal quality of the product.

Let us say the chef says, “I have imagined a new dish that uses truffles. This customer ordered a pizza. A pizza is a casual meal. I prefer a real meal. And I prefer to use my artistic skills as a chef. Therefore, instead of making the stupid pizza, I will make my truffle souffle!”

When the waiter brings the meal out to the diner, the diner is shocked. “Where’s my pizza?” “This is a truffle souffle.” “What the hell is that?” The diner tries the truffles and spits them out. “This is abominable! I demand the pizza I ordered!” And then the chef, standing at the door, watches all this. The chef charges up to the diner and says, “What! You do not like my truffles? This is because you have no taste! I will force my taste on you!” And then the chef opens the diner’s mouth and begins cramming his truffle souffle down his throat. “Behold my artistic vision!” laughs the chef as the customer chokes.

As ridiculous as that it, it is equally ridiculous for the customer to barge into the kitchen to tell the chef how to cook the pizza. “It is my pizza. Therefore, I insist the chef use that pan instead of that pan, to have the oven on at 400 degrees instead of 350 degrees, and to use that dough over there.” This is greatly offensive to the chef as that is the chef’s profession and the customer is a rank amateur. The customer is, of course, pushed out of the kitchen. The customer’s role is to eat the food, not to cook it. Likewise, the chef’s role is to cook the food, not to eat it.

“Hamburgers are too casual a meal. I insist we cook only gourmet meals.” Any chef who says that would not have his restaurant be in business for long. Who cares whether or not the game is something the developers want to play. What matters is if the market wants to play it. If kids come in, does the chef say, “I don’t make kiddie meals”? Everywhere I go, I find that kids are given food that they will eat.

However, imagine this scenario. Imagine if you are dining at a restaurant and, all of a sudden, you heard donkey sounds come from the kitchen. “Eehh Ohhrr Eeeehhh Ohhrr!” The customer would be thinking, “What the hell?” and the customer would likely stand up, walk over to the kitchen, and poke his head in and say, “What is going on in there?”

In the same way, when games are coming from studios that are resembling a movie instead of a game, or games that keep raising the price or demand DLC, the customer is, rightfully, going to poke his head into the kitchen and go, “What the hell is going on in there?”

When the gamer is being hit by ever increasing prices, games that are not games, invasive DRM, and downloadable content the customer doesn’t want, the gamer is going to poke his head into the developer studios and say, “What the hell is going on in there?”

The wii isn't a bad system but to say that controllers are obsolete and holding back the industry is absolutely insane. Look at Nintendo's releases. None of these games utilize motion control in revolutionary ways. Mario kart is compatible with the GCN controller and classic controller, as well as SSB:B. Twilight princess has minimal IR pointing and waggle for using the sword. Mario Galaxy is all waggle and NSMB:Wii is waggle also, why do I have to shake the controller in order to pick up a turtle shell?

Nintendo fanboys give the wii way too much credit. Also, if the dual shock controller is so obsolete then why does the wiimote/nunchuck have as many buttons as it?

Get your head out of the clouds, blindly following one console is completely idiotic and screaming about Heavy Rain being a movie is dumb as well. It's one freaking game, there is no need for all this hatred towards it. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

It'll be really interesting to see how nintendos next console will sell. Will the new audience nintendo gained this gen follow them into the next? Or will they remain happy with their wii & wii sports software.

You're delusional if you think that the next nintendo system will sell just as well as the wii.

I'd like to add that I'm not even anticipating Heavy Rain, it looks interesting to me but I don't feel the need to rush out and buy it day 1. I look at gaming as a whole, you can't follow one console and think of all others as being horrible and backwards. All 3 consoles & the pc have great games. Blindly following one console is nonsense.

"When the gamer is being hit by ever increasing prices, games that are not games, invasive DRM, and downloadable content the customer doesn’t want, the gamer is going to poke his head into the developer studios and say, “What the hell is going on in there?”"

You can thank EA, Activision & Microsoft for the software cost increase. Another thing is that development costs are much higher, $60 isn't a bad price for a high quality title. I wouldn't pay any more though.

DRM has gotten much better over the last few years. Companies thought they could get away with it being so restrictive and consumers showed that they weren't going to put up with it.

DLC, dlc is getting to be a problem. Extra content that is available on the disc but has to be unlocked through money, capcom has gotten really bad. I expect these things to change eventually but not all DLC is bad.

As for games not being games, I take it you're referring to Heavy Rain, I don't see this as a viable complaint because it's only one game. I don't really think games are heading in that direction. It was (for lack of a better term) an experiment in how storytelling can be experienced in the videogame medium.

Lots of people say that ps3 and 360 games are the equivalent of movies. These people act as if the wii, gamecube, n64, snes or nes never had cutscenes. Look at ninja gaiden. Ninja Gaiden was one of the first games ever to have cutscenes, and they were pretty long. Another series that has insanely long dialogue scenes is the paper mario titles. The thousand year door and Super paper mario would go on and on with childish dialogue (yes, it's childish). Zelda has also featured cutscenes since the snes days. It doesn't make them any more or less of a game though.

Lots of people here like to point fingers at consoles other than the wii for holding the industry back. This is not true. If you're one of these people you really need to take a look at your software library for the wii. How many of these games are similar to games that can be found on the 360/ps3? Also, how many of these games are games like De Blob and Boom Blox? Many people would argue that games like that are mindless and offer nothing to gaming, "casual fodder" some might call them. Also, these games could be argued that they are the games that make people poke their head into the developers studio and say, "what the hell is going on in here?"

How would one be "delusional" for thinking a Wii successor would sell more than the original? How does anyone know what the next generation holds to where he or she could just somehow assume less - and for no real reason?

That people apparently overcredit the Wii (whose success can't be understated) for the industry's recent growth is not grounds for attacking it with viral-marketing terminology ("kiddy," "eventually doomed," "shovelware," and such). It can be criticized, yes - but to use terminology as previously mentioned is to help the ill-intentioned industry continue to marginalize a viable player if for no other reason than it threatens the tech-elite's plans for total console-portable hegemony or worse a one-platform market.

The point is that our friend Mr. Caps isn't representative of anything real and shouldn't be taken seriously, no less used as a measuring stick.

I have a question. My import of Fatal Frame 4 came in last week. I was wondering if you've been able to play it with the english patch and if so, what are your thoughts on the game? Me personally, I think nintendo screwed up big time by not bringing this game over. Yes it wouldn't have sold in the millions but it's still a really solid game that most "core" wii users would have bought.

I have to admit that I did not play the game yet. I believe it is not slated for a European release. But I have got some very good friends with Nintendo of Europe's localization team. They are VERY tight-lipped, unfortunately´. But I'll ask ;)

American Heavy Rain players have been reporting issues with game freezes.

Worse than that, the official PlayStation forums thread where the problems are being reported has also seen some players reporting corrupted save data.

It's hard to know how widespread the problem is, as almost every high profile release seems to have some players reporting similar issues, but the problem is big enough to warrant the appearance of a Sony rep to calm everyone down.

"Hi folks, this is just to let you know that the issues reported in this thread and elsewhere are being looked into," he says.

"One word of advice we've had already is to avoid switching off your PlayStation while the game is in black screen as this may be affecting your save game. There have been a few reports of incidents where game saves have taken longer than would normally be expected - and with a black screen present it may leave the assumption that the game has crashed. In these circumstances we recommend you wait at least 5 minutes before rebooting."

So if you have read our Heavy Rain review and decided to pick up a copy when the game hits stores this Friday, heed those words of advice.

graphics 10 dddeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr the non interactive graphics like CUTSEENS/FMVS there bound to be impressive jesus h christ i see nothing better there than the knife fight in resident evil 4 on the gamecube

WITCH WAS ALSO QTE

DO YOU NOT GET IT KOMBO SERIOUSKLY THERES NO REASON THIS GAME COULDNT HAVE BEEN DONE ON THE GAMECUBE NEVER MIND THE WII

IF A CNSOLE CANNOT HANDLE QTE SEENS IN REAL TIME THEN THE DEVELOPERS JUST VIDEO IT AND CHANGE SAID VIDEO DEPENDING ON YOUR QTE BUTTON PRESS

Here are my thoughts on Galaxy 2 and metroid M gfx based on the new trailers and shots:

Galaxy 2:

- Galaxy 2 obviously pushes more polygons than Galaxy 1. Many Objects have a rounder look.

- The environments seem to be quite a bit bigger without sacrifing texture quality though.

- The texture quality is about on par with Galaxy 1.

- As far as the lighting is concerned it's hard to make out from the trailer but in some of the frames metallic surfaces seem to look a bit better than in Galaxy. I think the lighting will end up being a slightly improved over Galaxy.

All in all very impressive. It might seem subtle to you but to me it's quite an improvement over Galaxy. Sporting bigger environments with rounder objects without sacrificing texture quality is quite an achievement on it's own imo.

Metroid Other M:

Metroid other M is the first Wii game that matches that rich and clean Xbox 1 look.(with very clean textures and highly detailed models and shader effects)

Very impressive. I didn't think it was possible without the software shaders but they pulled it off somehow.

Metroid Other M is the best looking videogame ever on a Nintendo console to date imo.

If anyone actually watch the full 30 minutes of the lecture you'd understand the gentlemans point.

Games were never about hardcore or softcore. Games are games. Many of those who post on this blog weren't even a sperm in their father's balls when video games first began. My first video game was a 5.25" Space Invaders diskette for IBM PS/2... I've played Jordan vs Bird on Apple IIe in black and green.

In the 20 years since then, video games as we know it have escaped fantasy and approached reality - much like the speaker demonstrates. The key thing to all achievemnts, Farmville, Mafia Wars, Wii etc... is a sense of social connectivity.

Graphics hardware is merely 5 years away from uber realism. Nintendo understood with their Blue Ocean strategy - make the bottom line as easy to pick up to play and entertain - make it social - but not competitive to the point where people are hesitant to play.

Why is Bejewelled so popular on Facebook? You compete with friends - its easy to play - and there are prizes.

He's also right about divergence of devices. There will never be only one gaming console. That is the power of a free market. People will always want brand competition. You think tomorrow if AMD was swallowed up by Intel people would sit idle and let it happen? Its called being anti-competitive practices. It's also illegal.

Apple and Facebook are the new entrants into gaming. In many ways I see Facebook permeating into game consoles replacing GamerTags or Mii's in generations to come.

I know this post is all over the place... but man, im always sick of people not seeing the bigger picture.

So why is Falafel discussing Heavy Rain (the glitchy movie i will never watch with OOOOOOH!!! button pressing!!!!) on a wii themed blog again?Especially with all this great Ninty news out now?I just dont get it.My god!Falafel?On a perfect Sunday morning I'd expect to enjoy a cup of coffee and read about the insane beauty of Metroid other M from your perspective when dropping by to see your insightful, well written blog.

Instead?

Facebook "games" and Heavy rain just dont interest me.

Falafel saying that nothing's wrong because he's written before about non ninty games doesnt cut it with me.

Change the name of the blog.Change the graphic on the blog.And then I can go find another wii rumor blog. (will be hard to find one as good as yours)

Falafel writes well and i thank him for that, but I'dlike to see the focus return to wii speculation.

As a person who only owns a wii....

( i dont have the free time to justify playing several consoles)

...and believes in Nintendo's vision of quality gaming, PS3 and Xbox related posts here that don't tie up things with relating to nintendo just confuse....

THE WII IS THE POWER OF 2 XBOX ORIGINALS AND 2 GAMECUBES FACTOR 5 SAID IT AND EXPLAINED IT ASWELL I WAS STUNNED BUT THE WII HAS ALOT OF STUFF NO ONE SPEAKS ABOUT LIKE S3 FOR REALISTIC TEXTURES AND PPU,A GPU COMPARABLE TO 360 GPU THE TEV FACTOR 5 SAID U CAN MAKE ULTRA REALISTIC GRAPHICS WITH HE SAID THE GAMECUBE COULD HAVE GOT EVEN BETTER THAN RESIDENT EVIL 4 AND ROUGUE SQUADRON ECT SO IMAGINE WHAT WII CAN DO WITH 4 TIMES THE POWER HE SAID XBOX AND GAMECUBE WHERE SAME POWER JUST GAMECUBE IS CUSTOM PROGRAMMING XBOX WAS LIKE A PC TO COD FOR EASIER GAMECUBE HARDER BUT BETTER RESULTS WHEN U TRY SAME AS WII WAIT FOR FACTOR 5 3 GAMES THEY WILL BE AMAZING

PS3 owners were in for a shock last night as consoles all around the world suddenly stopped working. Reports from all around the US and Europe claim that PS3 "fat" units are suffering from a crippling bug, one which completely disrupts access to the PSN and online games, as well as breaking some offline titles as well. Gamers who attempt to connect to PSN are seeing error codes which kick them back to the XMB, and titles like Heavy Rain which must sync up with PSN every time they boot up have been rendered unplayable.

Original reports pinned the trouble on simple PSN maintenance, but it seems the problem is a bit bigger than that. Users are now reporting that their console's internal clock has reset itself to December 31st, 1999, and consequently some save and Trophy data has become corrupted. All this points to an internal hardware issue which, if true, could be a much larger problem requiring a much more complex solution. We've reached out to Sony for a comment on the situation but they haven't gotten back to us yet.

We don't yet know if the problem can be solved via firmware update or if more extreme steps will have to be taken, so it's impossible to predict how complicated or time-consuming the repair may be. In the worst-case scenario this could issue would be the PS3's own "Red Ring of Death," leading to a mass recall of consoles all at once at a time when Sony is already predicting a shortage of slim PS3s for retail. Such a doomsday scenario would likely sink any good will the company still has, considering this bug is landing the weekend after Heavy Rain released and two weeks before the scheduled debut of God of War III and Final Fantasy XIII. The timing really couldn't be worse.

Of course, we have no reason to believe things are that bad, but given the fact that Sony isn't talking beyond acknowledging a problem exists, we're all pretty much free to speculate at this point, and that is perhaps the most troubling aspect of all this. Sony has been essentially silent on the issue for roughly 12 hours now, allowing rumors to run wild and refusing to control the message. While we can understand that things are still unresolved it would at least be nice to get an update or two regarding what sort of testing is being done and where the problem may actually lie. Right now the Internet is rampant with rumors and speculation about what is causing the outage, and what it will take to fix the error, and even a brief comment from Sony would go a long way in quieting the masses.

While the bug is very sudden and certainly unexpected, it's times like these when consumers most need reassurance. When natural disasters strike relief officials don't say "We know there was an earthquake and we are looking into it's cause" and then disappear, they keep the public apprised of refugee centers, food aid and services to find lost loved ones. Considering how much smaller the scale of this problem is you could think that Sony could spare a few minutes to update their Twitter or pop on the PlayStation Blog and announce some sort of news rather than keeping us totally in the dark.

So until further notice, don't turn on your PS3, heck don't even look at the thing for fear it will become sentient and kill you. "On February 28th, 2010 the PS3 became self-aware... and promptly bricked itself." THE SHOCKING TRUTH OF HEAVY RAINS BULLLL SHIT

the clock issue was just that, an issue. it fixed itself and everything is fine now.

I picked up heavy rain on wednesday. I wasnt sure how much i'd enjoy it but after playing it the last 2 days I can easily say that it's one of the best games i've ever played.

the story, the characters, the music, graphics, etc.

This game is top notch. Anyone calling it nothing but a QTE fest is ignorant. It's so much more than that, watching videos doesn't come close to what playing the game is like. I plan on finishing it tonight & then starting another playthrough to see how the scenarios play out differently.

Just to let you all know, I'm off to GDC. I will be speaking to a number of important industry people. But the most important figure, I am set to interview upon my return, on Thursday in a week's time. It's not totally confirmed yet, but it looks very likely.

As far as announcements are concerend, I am invited to a Sony event at GDC, which will see some big unveiling, they tell me (and they tell me no more). Stay tuned for an inside perspective on GDC and all news emanating from it.

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